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One in three GP practices fails to meet basic standards

The health regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has uncovered a catalogue of failings at some GP practices with medicines stored in a way that puts children and patients at risk of infection and rooms so dirty they had maggots.

CQC carried out inspections at 1,000 GP practices in England and found examples of "very poor care" that put patients at risk.

Royal College of General Practitioners said many "GPs are working 11 hour days and seeing up to 60 patients a day in the face of increasing pressure to deliver safe patient care with diminishing resources."

RCGP's chair Dr Maureen Bake described a "funding black hole worth £9 billion" in England over the past eight years, which she said was a result of investment being shifted towards hospitals.